Monday, February 07, 2011

Readers of this blog know that I'm a fan of Smell Bent, a house that continues to surprise and delight with little numbers that are lovely and inexpensive enough to spritz with abandon.

RadioDada is the latest seasonal collection and perfumer Brent Leonesio told me that he feels that it's his most cohesive. I agree.

Fuzzy Teacup is a peachy jasmine with a rather disturbing cream and honey accord. After a while it arrives at an interestingly odd milky tea scent. Not sure I'd reach for it, but it's entertaining.

Exquisite Corpse is a bergamot scent with a hint of tuberose with discernible green pepper (happily) less discernible mimosa and finally, dirt. I like dirt. A winner.

Mots Vert initially made me giggle with its almost smoky hyacinth, carnation and, yes, rhubarb with vanilla and musk. It totally shouldn't work, but it does wonderfully.

Disagreeable Object lists cumin, celery and curry amongst the bitter orange and petitgrain. I was slightly disappointed that the former three were so very light. Those of you who aren't skank-monsters will like this a lot better than I. I did enjoy it, I just wanted more disagreeable.

However, my slight distress over "Objects" being too agreeable was short-lived, since Lobster Cellphone was my Hands-Down favorite. Opening with sparkly pink grapefruit (a note that I happen to love, if you don't run for your life), it adds in tomato leaf and finishes with a lovely clean musk.

These are available on the Smell Bent website, $6.50 for 4ML travel spray, $20 for 8ML oil and $45 for 55ML spray. I received my samples from Smell Bent

Smell Bent has generously offered to send a packet of samples of these five to one lucky reader. Please leave a comment to be entered into the draw. Draw will close at 12:01AM on Sunday the 13th. PST

61 Comments:

My experience with Smell Bent has been very hit or miss (unfortunately, more so the latter). I like the informal quirky feel of the brand, and the very agreeable price point. And I actually own 2 full bottles that I like (Debonair and Incensed). But my experience with the subsequent releases and limited editions has been underwhelming to say the least. There is something in the base of these perfumes (you know that signature that tends to connect someone's work and make it identifiable) that simply disagrees with me. (As much as I love animalic musks, their musks tend to be more "L'air de Rien"--which I hate--rather than "Muscs Koublai Khan"--which I love.) After the last couple of batches of samples, I swore "No more Smell Bents; they're just not working for me." But if I do get a set, I certainly won't say no!

Intrigued by Exquisite Corpse and Mots Verts, but I think I'd likely find Lobster Cellphone the most wearable. And think about the fun of answering "What are you wearing?". Please do enter me into the draw.- Lindaloo (rchawork at yahoo dot com)

I've had mixed reactions to Smell Bent, but when I tried them they were doing oil only, and that has never worked well for me. These sound quite interesting, so sign me up... maybe this time I'll discover something I like.

Smell Bent is hit or miss with me, too, but that's why I love the sample sets and the low prices. My favorites of his happen to be the seasonal ones (Felix Navidad, Smooch the Pooch, Violet Tendencies) but I'm big on his Bollywood for a great sandalwood and rose combo and really like his Hippie takes on patchouli. I'd love to get a chance to try the newest additions, please enter me in the draw. Thanks!

I'm with Ashraf up there: I really don't get on all that well with the Smell Bent musk, and the ones I've tried (maybe nine scents now?) have been more misses than hits. But they're FUN scents, and even the ones I didn't like were adventures for the nose.

The only one out of this batch that appealed to me was Mots Verts (hyacinth? carnation? yum, although the musk gives me pause), but I just want to answer the question, "What perfume are you wearing?" with "Lobster Cellphone!"

Smell Bent has one (is it "debonair?") which smells almost exactly like de Nicolai's New York. Brussels Sprouted is terrific as well. Mostly I see his scents as really clever one-liners, much in the way the Demeter smells really show mastery of one particular accord. I'd love a sample to show me one with some time development! Thanks.

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